Officers of GDCOC and Romania's organised crime service DIICOT carried out a large-scale special operation to dismantle a criminal group involved in skimming fuel cards from European retail chains and in financial fraud worth thousands of euros.
Two men — aged 30 and 48 — were arrested during a GDCOC police action on 18 June 2026, carried out under a European Investigation Order. Two other members of the group had already been detained and handed over to a Romanian court in May.
Together with officers of the Yambol Regional Directorate, searches were conducted at five addresses and a vehicle in Sofia and Yambol. The actions in Bulgaria were supervised by the Yambol District Prosecutor's Office, with a Romanian prosecutor present on site.
The joint investigation into the cross-border crime began in mid-2025 under the name JI SECURE PAY, coordinated by the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC).
It was established that between April 2025 and February 2026, Bulgarian members of the group installed skimming devices at self-service petrol stations in Romania and other EU countries. The copied data was used to forge payment instruments and refuel in particularly large quantities, causing significant damage to European citizens and companies.
Actions to dismantle the criminal activity continue.
